Today is Day Two of Week Three of
the Omer. That is Day Sixteen of the
Omer. The theme of the Week is Happiness.
Politics. We utter it as if it were a dirty word. Yet we follow it assiduously. We dismiss the political realm as if the
whole process, and everyone connected with it were corrupt. Yet we observe every trend, and we open many
a conversation with it, and we get hot under the collar about it perhaps more
than anything else.
As an American
living in Australia, this has been an interesting season for me. First – and most obviously – the USA is in
the throes of a very turbulent political season in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential
Election. Many, perhaps most Aussies are
fascinated by the US elections. Of
course, the primary overt interest right now is on the Donald Trump phenomenon. But also on the general process in the US,
its complexity and the protracted length of the election campaigns. Against this, Australia is facing an election
season herself. Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull petitioned the Governor General today for a double dissolution of
parliament. That is, to completely
dissolve both houses and put every seat up for election, on July second. Aussies are following both dramas – their
own, and the one unfolding in America – closely.
I mention US and
Australia politics, not because I’m winding up to tell you my own
preferences. Rather, I think that the
way we follow and react to politics says something about the happiness
quotient. That is, the dearth of
happiness that I mentioned yesterday.
Politics doesn’t make us miserable.
But it often becomes a focus for our misery.
So many people feel
so miserable, and so apt to blame their misery on external forces. If my misery is not my own fault, then I’m
somehow vindicated, aren’t I? But if I
have to take responsibility for my own happiness, yet I’m miserable, then I
almost have to internalise that I’m a failure, don’t I? So we focus on other causes, blame others for
our lack of happiness. (By the way, I’m
not saying that I personally subscribe to the equation miserable=failure. I’m just pointing out the binary view that many
of us hold.)
There’s no question
that it matters who leads our respective countries. A good government can make a country
flourish. Clever economic policies can
boost the economy and make a large part of the country breathe easier. Responsible domestic social policy can make
more people feel that the country’s direction is more in concert with their own
values. Wise foreign policies can raise
the country’s profile world-wide and make the country matter in a greater and
more positive way. One has to be really
cynical to think that it doesn’t matter who leads the country.
And yet there is a
degree of cynicism afloat today. Some
would say that it is cynicism that is driving the US electorate’s decisions in
the primaries. There’s no question that
a significant portion of Mr. Trump’s success in securing the Republican
nomination is due to a deep cynicism amongst members of the Party. And likewise on the Democrat side; although
it appears that Secretary Clinton has her party’s nomination all but wrapped
up, there is a strong element on the Left that believes she’s just another
political hack and is therefore pushing their own outsider – Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders – to mount a strong challenge.
But relevant to the
happiness factor, I think that there’s a tendency to internalise that the political
process – the election results, and the corruption that is assumed to be
widespread amongst political office-holders – is a strong determinant of one’s
personal happiness. It isn’t, though.
It matters to me,
who will win the US election. If my
presence in Australia were more permanent, I would think the same of the big
parliamentary election coming up this summer…er, winter. But in either case, my happiness does not
depend on it. It doesn’t depend on
either country’s political choices, nor on the outcome of the civil war in
Syria, nor on the refugee problem in Europe, nor even on the recent spread of
anti-Israel sentiment in the world and the question of whether this constitutes
Antisemitism. And that isn’t to say that
all these things don’t matter; they matter a lot! But for each and every one of us, happiness
resides far closer to home. And we must
look far closer to home, in addressing our happiness.
Those on the Left
who threaten to quit America should Trump win, and those on the right who
threaten the same if Clinton or Sanders wins (I actually haven’t heard any
celebrities say they would, but I’m guessing that someone out there is
thinking that if not expressing it), can live out their years in whatever
country they like, and which would accept them.
As can I, although my decision will not depend on who lives in the house
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Because no
matter how much I might roll my eyes at anything that the occupant of that
address might say, it does not affect my happiness. And I hope you recognize that it doesn’t
affect yours.
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